The Chimera

Yusef uses language that juxtaposes the men to animals as a way of evoking the feeling of dehumanization that was brought on by the Vietnam war to those who served in it. By describing the way that the soldiers were forced to hide throughout the day, allowing themselves to become part of the landscape rather than people it is easy to get a view into the psychology that destroyed men in the Vietnam War. The day light is not the time for them to move about for fear of the enemy finding them and killing them. The title of the poem itself reflects what they became: chimeras. Men had to take on the qualities of animals and landscapes in an attempt to survive.